The invention relates to a connector for plates, which is useful for attaching a linear member or some other member fast to a plate or for joining face-to-face two or more plates.
Conventional connectors of this type have preponderantly consisted of a pair comprising a male member and a female member. Such a connector serves to attach a clamp or a similar article fast to a plate or join a plurality of plates face to face by the medium of a plate and by means of screws or meshes. There has also been proposed a connector for plates, which comprises a flange and a shank disposed on said flange and provided with a claw. It serves to attach itself fast to a plate or to join a plurality of plates face to face when the shank thereof is inserted through the perforation bored in a plate to an extent such that only the claw slides clearly past the perforation and snaps into fast hooking engagement with the edge of said perforation.
The former connector for plates is composed of two parts in such way that, when it is attached fast to a plate, it inevitably requires a complicated operation to be performed behind the plate. In the case of the latter connector, the work for attachment thereof to a plate is relatively easy. Nevertheless it involves a disadvantage that desired attachment is not obtained with perfect stability and accuracy or it is not obtained at all if the thickness of the space for receiving a plate between the lower surface of the flange and the upper surface of the claw differs from the thickness of the plate even to the slightest degree.
The connectors of this type including those described above are chiefly made of metallic materials. If they are to be made of plastic materials, their structures are relatively complicated and, therefore, frequently defy all attempts at one-shot molding. Even if such a connector is somehow adapted to one-shot molding, the injection molding of plastic materials necessitates use of metal dies consisting of three or more split segments.
The primary object of this invention is to provide a connector for plates, which provides perfect face-to-face union of a plurality of plates or permits fast attachment of a linear material or some other material to a plate through a simple operation.
Another object of this invention is to provide a connector for plates which is capable of connecting various plates differing considerably in, for example, the shape of the perforation bored in said plate and the thickness of the plate.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a connector for plates, which can easily be shaped in a unitary form by injection molding of a plastic material.